credit: Virgin Galactic / caption: could SpaceShipTwo use a liquid propulsion system?
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo could be a single stage to suborbit vehicle using liquid chemical propulsion according to independent research carried out by a company that has been contracted by the European Space Agency for suborbital and hypersonic transport studies
UK company Gas Dynamics has concluded, after its own internal study, using all the publicly available material it could obtain about SS2, that the spacecraft does not need its carrier aircraft WhiteKnight Two if it is fitted with a liquid chemical propulsion system
Gas Dynamics has worked for ESA studying suborbital flight because of the agency's interest in using such vehicles for technology testing. The compay's own website refers to "Vinci: A cryogenically fuelled suborbital concept for the European Space Agency"
Hyperbola is not aware of any link between this ESA Vinci suborbital project and Gas Dynamics own internal SS2 study
However the UK firm came to the conclusion that the volume within which SS2 carries its solid rocket motor and nitrous oxide supply could equally hold a liquid chemical propulsion system capable of providing enough thrust for long enough for a horizontal take-off and ascent to 50,000ft and above without the need for WK2
Hyperbola had spoken to Gas Dynamics at an aerospace sciences conference held in the northern English city of Manchester a week or two before the 60th International Astronautical Congress held in Daejeon, south Korea. It was then that this blog learnt of the company's internal SS2 study and related ESA work
At the IAC last October Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn mentioned in passing during his presentation that in future SS2 could use liquid propulsion and Hyperbola sent a cryptic tweet at the time expecting to be able to follow that up with a blog post in the future
This blog was hoping to gain further details about Gas Dynamics' ESA studies in the months since the Manchester conference and IAC but senior European Space Research and Technology Centre managements' nervousness about the perception of suborbital projects meant an interview could not be arranged before now
Hyperbola is not aware of any link between this ESA Vinci suborbital project and Gas Dynamics own internal SS2 study
However the UK firm came to the conclusion that the volume within which SS2 carries its solid rocket motor and nitrous oxide supply could equally hold a liquid chemical propulsion system capable of providing enough thrust for long enough for a horizontal take-off and ascent to 50,000ft and above without the need for WK2
Hyperbola had spoken to Gas Dynamics at an aerospace sciences conference held in the northern English city of Manchester a week or two before the 60th International Astronautical Congress held in Daejeon, south Korea. It was then that this blog learnt of the company's internal SS2 study and related ESA work
At the IAC last October Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn mentioned in passing during his presentation that in future SS2 could use liquid propulsion and Hyperbola sent a cryptic tweet at the time expecting to be able to follow that up with a blog post in the future
This blog was hoping to gain further details about Gas Dynamics' ESA studies in the months since the Manchester conference and IAC but senior European Space Research and Technology Centre managements' nervousness about the perception of suborbital projects meant an interview could not be arranged before now
on May 31, 2010 4:42 AM | Reply
This is a bit odd. The headline mentions SSTO but the text actually talks of a liquid rocket getting SS2 to 50,000 ft in place of the Carrier A/C. Fine. Then what? The existing hybrid unit is far from capable of orbital velocities. Besides the vehicle is not designed for re-entry at near-orbital speeds. A leetle too much hyperbole here methinks!
What might work would be a carrier designed to achieve M2-3 @20,000M, with a liquid rocket substituting for the SS2 hybrid motor, and using drop tanks for the climb to orbital altitude, leaving the onboard fuel for orbital insertion exclusively. But it would still need an SS3 capable of killing that orbital speed in safety on the go-down...remember that the current re-entry speeds are sufficiently low to allow a shuttlecock manoeuvre...